What I’m Thinking: A Short Wait

Because Christmas Eve fall on a Sunday, we’ll read the story of the Annunciation in the morning – and the story of the birth of that child that very evening. Waiting for a baby usually takes longer, and so do many of the things we wait for in this life.

Here’s a transcript:

We’ll be having two services this coming Sunday at Church of the Holy Cross. We’ll have our usual worship service at 10:00 am. In the evening we’ll return, because it is Christmas Eve, and so there will be the Lessons and the Carols. We’ll sing Silent Night, each of us holding a glowing candle, to close the evening.

It is one of the most beautiful nights of the year.

I’m thinking, however, of the text for the fourth Sunday in Advent, which we’ll be reading on Sunday morning. It’s found in the first chapter of Luke (Luke 1:26-38), and it’s the angel Gabriel telling that young woman named Mary that she would be the mother of the Messiah.

Well, because Christmas Eve is Sunday, we end up with a very short pause between the Annunciation in the morning and the birth at night.

But I think that most of our lives are filled with much longer pauses between announcement and fulfillment. Even with the birth of the Christ child, there was still not many months but many years to come before the adult Jesus took to the roads and began to spread his message of Good News. Most of Jesus’ life is not recorded between his birth and his ministry at the age of thirty.

No, I think most of our life is spent in the in-between times, between the announcement of hope and promise, and the fulfillment of love and grace.

That’s what I’m thinking. I’m curious to hear about what you’re thinking. So leave me your thoughts in the comment section below; I’d love to hear from you.